COVID-19 effect: Appointment of judges stalled at SC, state High Courts

NEW DELHI:  Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, not only the hearings of the Supreme Court have been affected, but also the process of appointment of Judges has also been stalled.

The top court is already short of two judges from the strength of 34 which will further rise to four as two judges are slated to retire in July and September respectively.

The Supreme Court Collegium consists of senior most judges who decide on the candidature of advocates for elevation to bench comprises of five senior judges for appointment to the Apex court and three senior judges for appointment of High Court judges.

As many as over 100 names of appointments at high court and top court are pending since April 20, when the collegium had cleared few names by circulating the papers amongst all members.

Since the time lockdown was announced in March, the conventional style physical collegium meetings were stopped alongwith personal interaction meetings of the judges with the collegium members, which used to be a routine step before the names get approved for appointment at high court level.

Personal interview of proposed candidates was started by the SC in 2018 wherein the concerned person appears before the collegium and one-to- one interaction takes place.

After the interaction, collegium members sat amongst themselves and decide on elevation.

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